The Amino acids, components of proteins, the main characters in GPUGRID simulations. Given per total number of credits and milestones in 20 levels, the number of amino acids encoded by the universal genetic code (ordered by molar mass ~weight). Amino acid/credits equivalences below.

The Waters, basic component of life and a distinctive trait of our long and accurate simulations. 7 levels (Plastic, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Ruby, Emerald, Sapphire) to represent relative contribution to our scientific publications. Each water badge will be linked to the corresponding publication and Science topic. Water/percentage equivalences below.

The donor badge is changed to the crown

The complete information is available in the Volunteers page. We will update the server at the start of next week!

Water badges are equivalent to percentiles in a ranked table of contributors.
Of all contributors for a paper, the Top 1% are assigned a Sapphire, the top 10% (minus the 1% guys) an Emerald and so on...

Thanks. I was not clear on my question. What is the equation? Also, hypothetically, I could be in the top 1% today, but drop out tomorrow. So does this badge represent the highest ever achieved, or just the current ranking?
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Dublin, California
Team: SETI.USA

The paper rankings are (barring fixes) "static": they represent the contribution that you have given to a specific paper. Thus, they are only computed when a new paper comes out, by counting the calculations that were used in it. Once a paper is published, new WUs can't enter into it, and therefore - once a badge is given, it's given.

Hopefully I did not confuse your ideas.

In other words:
1. Computations are done; say, they have the "LYSTRYP" name tag
2. A paper on LYSTRYP is written and, hopefully, published.
3. We count who has given what to our LYSTRYP (computations and paper)
4. Contributors are ranked; top 1% of the contributors get sapphire for LYSTRYP, top 10% get ... etc
5. There is no n. 5. New workunits will have different names, and new results won't affect the LYSTRYP badges.

In short, paper-related badges are tokens of appreciation for helping us in reaching specific important goals.

In short, paper-related badges are tokens of appreciation for helping us in reaching specific important goals.

Ah! I get it now. Thanks!

Okay, then I have a follow-up question. There is a choice between long and short tasks. Are any sub-projects available in only one or the other? In other words, if I chose only long tasks, will I be missing out on contributing to some sub-projects? Or if I choose only short tasks, will I be missing out on contributing to some sub-projects?
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Dublin, California
Team: SETI.USA

There is a choice between long and short tasks. Are any sub-projects available in only one or the other? In other words, if I chose only long tasks, will I be missing out on contributing to some sub-projects? Or if I choose only short tasks, will I be missing out on contributing to some sub-projects?

Very good question.
I don't know the long-term answer to that question, but I have an impression of the present situation and can speculate on what I think will/should happen:
At the minute TONI, GIANNI and NATHAN have long tasks (in various numbers) but I have not seen any MJHARVEY or KASHIF long tasks recently, and while I have seen a few normal length NATHAN and TONI tasks, I think these are different projects (but possibly different parts of one project). There has not been many IBUCH tasks recently, of either length, probably because Ignasi has been busy setting up this system and the site.
I expect this will be discussed soon, 'amongst the researchers' if it has not already been agreed upon (related issues have been).
I would speculate that it's most likely there will be both long and normal tasks for as many projects as possible fairly soon. My worry would be that some ongoing research might require step continuity, but for future projects I don't see any reason why there could not be both short and long tasks for all ongoing research. It's sort of set and forget vs interactive & fun. Either way, so long as we know what's happening we can crunch accordingly. We should all be able to reach plastic for every project by crunching a few short (or even long) tasks now and again.

Thanks for the reply. I see a problem for badge-chasers like me. How do we make sure we maximise our chance to win? Rather than a choice for long/short, we need sub-project selections.
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Dublin, California
Team: SETI.USA

Skgiven's guesses of the short/long tasks are rather accurate.
Our usage of either of these is primarily based on the experiment/researcher needs.

Now, regarding zombie67 concerns about sub-project selection, I can say that we will NOT implement it. Unlike other DC projects that do so trough the differnet apps they deploy, GPUGRID runs a single app for all of its WU types (only splitted in two weight categories—short/long). Moreover, sub-project selection would result in a competition for resources between GPUGRID scientists and we don't want that, we are single research group with common goals.

The most you can do is to use short/long WU to indirectly select between experiements (i.e. HIV is only running on short)...

Finally, and adding up on Toni's words, let me remark the fact that as scientists our goal is to get our work published. Publications are the measure of performance and success and they are the means to communicate our findings and developments. Publication Badges are designed to acknowledge your contribution to the achievement of these goals. In fact, they will be linked to each and every one of the publications done so far using GPUGRID. AFAIK and correct me if I am wrong but, this is a unique feature in the DC community that I am sure you will appreciate.

One amino badge for contribution (total credit based), and one water badge per published project - implemented retrospectively (for existing completed work). For existing projects, the badges will be added when the projects finish and the research is published.

There are all sorts of grouping arguments that could have led to many different orderings. For example, groups (small, nucleophilic, hydrophobic, aromatic, acidic, amides, basic), fluorescence, pKa, abundance, their codon letters/weights, alphabetical names, hydropathy index, wet and/or dry weight... Many possibilities were considered, as was the αα count itself (20, 21, 22, numerous non-standard variants)!

IIRC the system chosen was entirely based on 'dry' molecular weight, for which Leucine and Isoleucine have an identical molecular weight (molar mass) of 113.16 Dalton - so their order is moot. I might have went with Leucine and then Isoleucine too, but it’s of little importance to the badge system. Maybe this was just done alphabetically (I,L)? Gln is slightly lighter than Lys – 128.14 and 128.17 respectively.

Are the water badges retroactive?

- edit Yes, retroactive/applied retrospectively for completed work.

It sounds like you've been planning for this badge system for awhile now.

There was a lot to consider and decide upon before implementing anything, and the site and server code had to be updated and tested first.
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Yeah he said they were retroactive, and then contradicted his earlier response. I see now that they do give credit for previous work. Outstanding! I wish I'd started this project earlier, I'm missing so many badges.

I just turned off short runs because of the ridiculously low credits I was getting on some of the units. Some were running as long as the long runs, and giving 25-30% of the credit. I'm sure you've already heard that before. I want to contribute to all of the subprojects without feeling like I'm being shorted. Is there anything to be done about this?

Of course; you could make a suggestion in the Wish list. Add your reasons.

Presently there is at least one project that only uses short tasks, perhaps more than one project. Tasks for new projects will probably be available in long and short lengths (steps).
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